Under the title "One Dose Instead of Two: Slow Vaccination Against Coronavirus in Developing Countries," the Alhurra website has reported on the vaccination process against COVID-19, noting that efforts to vaccinate poor countries against the virus have slowed significantly. This has weakened many people's defenses against the virus, especially as the burden of the pandemic shifts from developed to developing countries, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The COVAX initiative, supported by the World Health Organization and wealthy nations to provide free vaccines to 92 low- and middle-income countries, revealed plans to reduce the number of doses slated for shipment by the end of May to 145 million doses instead of approximately 240 million due to a halt in vaccine exports from India, its main supplier, because of a surge in cases there.
According to the American newspaper, this expands the already significant vaccination gap between rich and poor countries. While over 200 million doses have been administered in the United States, COVAX has so far delivered fewer than 41 million doses out of the two billion planned by the end of 2021.
The slow distribution in developing countries could create problems for the rest of the world. Epidemiologists believe that failing to immunize many developing countries could leave a large reservoir of COVID-19 circulating, giving the virus a chance to mutate and potentially spread to advanced countries.
Officials at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have suggested administering the first dose to as many people as possible, even if that means delaying the second dose. Tullio de Oliveira, a geneticist at Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in South Africa, stated that the risk of the vaccine becoming less effective without timely booster use is particularly high for countries struggling with variants that can evade antibodies from previous infections or vaccinations, such as those first discovered in South Africa and Brazil, which have spread rapidly to neighboring countries.
However, he added: “If the choice is between no vaccine and a single vaccine... then one doesn’t have much to lose on an individual level. What one can lose is trust in the vaccine.”
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week, “We are at an impasse. We cannot predict when second doses will come, and this is not good for our vaccination program.”
Health officials believe that one reason for the low demand for vaccines in some countries is the decision by some European countries to restrict the use of AstraZeneca vaccine for young people amidst reports of it causing blood clots. Additionally, health authorities in the U.S. temporarily halted the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week while investigating similar reports. Diana Atuhaire, the permanent secretary in the Ugandan Ministry of Health, stated, “There is a lot of misinformation. These negative messages emanating from Europe and America are the primary reason for our slow start in vaccinations.” She added, “Enthusiasm was low because people were told bad things about the vaccine.”
Furthermore, the lack of investment in vaccination logistics, including public messaging, also slows the start of the rollout. The charity organization CARE estimates that for every dollar spent on vaccine doses, governments need to invest an additional five dollars to vaccinate people, including salaries for healthcare workers, media campaigns, and cold chain logistics. So far, the COVAX initiative has received only about $600 million of the $7.3 billion needed for this year to purchase vaccines for poor countries. Vera Daves, Angola's finance minister, who has used less than half of COVAX's doses, stated, “If we get more funding, we can accelerate the process.”
